More than 255 employees of a mining company are struggling to feed their families after the owner of the company vanished into thin air with salaries owed to workers since December.
Prino Constructability and Projects, which was under contract to Sibanye, last paid the employees half their salaries in December last year and still owes them leave and severance pay.
“We were working with Prino since 2018, with some having started in 2017 when the company got a subcontract with Lonmin in Marikana before Sibanye took over. They gave us notice at the beginning of October, during our meeting with them and we started asking important questions such as whether we were going to get paid till the end of our contracts. Our union was informed and we were told not to worry, we would get paid,” one of the workers Thabang Motlhabane said.
When the time came for the employees to get paid, they received a portion of their salaries and others were retrenched. And when the workers enquired about their payments again, they were told by the directors that the owner, Peter Molotsi, was in Durban on vacation.
“When we called the directors asking about our money, they told us that the owner of the company ran away with the money and was Durban for holidays, and that they cannot get hold of him,” Motlhabane said.
An anonymous source who held an official position in the company disclosed to Sowetan that the total money that is allegedly owed to the employees is R1,089,130.92 and the money owed for leave and severance pay is R1,533,949.64.
According to the employees, their union Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) helped them lodge a case with Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). Their salaries were supposedto be paid on March 31, according to a CCMA agreement seen by Sowetan, but nothing has materialised.
“We took the matter to the CCMA and our union came to join us to pull the case through and we won the case and made an agreement that on the 31st of March we will get our pay. I was severely affected by the disappearance of the company because I am the only breadwinner in my family," said Rose Thaba.
Another employee who worked in the HR department said she was asked to help finalise the paperwork for the application for unemployment benefits.
“In January 2020 I was called to work with a former colleague and we worked hand in hand. Then when the 16th came we went to the CCMA for that case. A company representative for Prino came and signed [a pledge] to the commissioner that by end of March all our salaries would be paid,” said the employee.
She added that she continued working without pay for a while but decided to quit in April because there was no communication from her supervisor and his phones were off.
“When lockdown regulations were lifted I went to the office with former employees only to find the offices were to let. We were told by other occupants of the building that the company had closed its doors just before the lockdown [was declared] in March.”
Sowetan attempted to reach Molotsi on his cellphone but he was not available.
Amcu chairperson Loyiso Tyabuko said that the union cannot comment on the matter at the moment because they are conducting investigations on the whereabouts of Molotsi.
The workers on the other hand have expressed concern about how the union had handled the matter.
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